It was a Hall of Fame weekend where three managers — Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre and Bobby Cox were inducted. That raised speculation locally whether Giants manager Bruce Bochy would someday deserve the honor. Bochy’s two championships and total wins make him a legitimate part of the conversation in the future. But Bochy certainly did nothing in this weekend’s embarrassing home sweep to the Dodgers to win any votes.

Bochy began the key three-game series in retreat, playing down its importance. In that, he might have been the first manager in the 125 years that the Giants and Dodgers have been playing not to view the three-game weekend meeting between the historic rivals to have any more meaning than a three-game weekday series against the Rockies. Said Bochy prior to the weekend home debacle: “I don’t know what’s not a big game,” thereby lessening the significance of the matchup in the heat of a pennant race. If the manager isn’t fired up about the series, where should we expect the players to get their motivation?

Just another game, Bruce? Listen to the words of an expert on the rivalry.

“There’s so much pride involved. We try as hard against all other clubs, but somehow, some way, we feel all of the bad breaks, or sloppy games or mistakes will be forgiven by the fans if we beat the Dodgers.” That’s what Willie Mays said about the rivalry in 1971.

The Giants front office certainly viewed the series as something special. Dynamic Pricing, AKA price gouging, was in full view this series. The cheapest seat was $65 going into the series, for seats in the far upper left field stands, a terrible place to watch a baseball game. “Hey Dad, can we go to the Giants-Dodgers game?” “Sure son, just let me sell the car and the house, and we should have enough left over for a garlic fry.” Shame on you Giants, who love talking about the greatest fans in baseball. Now to be fair, Giants season ticket holders might have gotten the last laugh because the high market price set by the Giants meant that their reasonably priced tickets would bring in a nice profit on StubHub. There were a lot more Dodger fans in the park than in past series, so way to go Giants. Your greed helped to bring a lot more blue to Willie Mays Plaza. Heresy!

Other thoughts about this crucial series:

* Dodgers manager Don Mattingly took a hit when he arranged his rotation to have Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu to pitch against the Giants. Mattingly understood, far more than Bochy, that this was a statement series. Also, in a very practical sense, each game was worth a full game in the standings. So it is big in how it immediately affects the standings. A baseball cliché is that momentum is only as good as the starting pitching you face tomorrow, but ask yourself now: Who has the momentum after this series?

* Right now, the Giants must declare that Buster Posey is their first baseman. The battering sub catcher Hector Sanchez is taking, and the somewhat recent history of seeing top-notch catcher Mike Matheny forced to retire because of a concussion should be enough to force the change. The Giants are a weak offensive team. Posey is their best hitter. So, how smart is it to put him in jeopardy for a shortened career. I don’t know why it seems catchers are getting whacked in the mask now, but Posey has already taken a number of head shots in his early career. Posey’s switch from catcher wouldn’t hurt defensively, assuming the Giants could find a veteran to take over. Posey is not an exceptional defensive catcher. He is barely in the same zip code as sliding runners in plays at the plate, who easily avoid his desperate swipe tag as happened when Hanley Ramirez scored on a Crawford triple Sunday night. And Posey got totally conned by Dodger speedster Dee Gordon, who in effect stole a run when Posey chose to throw out Adrian Gonzales after he struck out on a pitch in the dirt. A pump throw to first and Gordon was dead.

* The Giants have lost five of their last 18 games at home. Why? Sure, the loss of Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt to injuries is a factor, but the obvious reason the Giants don’t hit at home is that their lineup is intimidated at spacious AT&T. The Giants do not build an offense for this park. They won two titles with weak hitting and some of the best pitching I’ve ever seen. So if the pitching can’t match those extraordinary staffs, the team will be challenged.

* Poor Dan Uggla. That ground ball that went right under his glove on national TV Sunday reminded me of a similar fate that happened to former Giants infielder Hal Lanier. A sports reporter wrote that ‘the ball went through Lanier’s legs like this (.)” Uggla hit .179 in 2013, and .162 this year. He is not trending to fill the Giants needs at second base.

* I am not a Jake Peavy fan. He was arrested on Jan. 4, 2007 at the Mobile, Alabama, airport on a disorderly conduct charge. He double-parked while dropping off bags outside the terminal. A security officer told him he could not double park, and to move on. Peavy objected, and said write him a ticket and he’d pay it. His refusal to move his car got him a trip to jail. The charge was dropped after he apologized to the airport police and the court. Did Peavey ever hear of 9/11, and the tightened airport security rules that followed, or did he think that didn’t apply if you could throw a 90-plus mph fastball. He struck me as one of those wealthy athletes who was so removed from the real world of those fans who worship him. Of course, I must note that everybody double-parks in San Francisco, so maybe fans will accept him as one of them, especially if he picks up a few wins.

* Despite the mismatch this weekend, the NL West isn’t over. The Dodgers appeared all-world against the Giants, but it’s difficult to get a clear reading on them. The Giants still have a strong pitching staff, and a healthy Pagan and Belt should help. Both teams have tough schedules through the next month, so there won’t be an easy path to success. And, of course, what happens at the trading deadline could affect the race. Giants fans can only hope that if they are in a battle with the Dodgers when the clubs play again six times in September that even the low-key Bochy will get a bit more excited.

The Sunday finale prior to the All Star Game break already has media and fans (and the ball clubs too, though they won’t admit it) looking ahead to the July 25-27 three-game showdown series between the Dodgers and Giants at AT&T Park. The Dodgers looked like the pitching-rich teams of the Koufax-Drysdale era of the 1960s, winning 1-0 against the San Diego Padres for the second straight day to preserve a one-game lead over the Giants. The slumping Giants suddenly went from misdemeanor row to murderers row in one afternoon, as catcher Buster Posey and pitcher Madison Bumgarner slugged grand slams.

It’s not easy to predict what either team will do once play resumes on Friday. Everybody recalls the Dodgers’ off the charts 42-8 run that cemented their division crown a year ago. But that was a freak streak — those things just don’t easily repeat. Both teams have pitching with the potential of keeping them relevant deep into September. There will be no predictions here, but here are some things to consider as the Giants and Dodgers possibly prepare to launch one the rivalry’s great pennant races.

THE SCHEDULE: The three games the Dodgers and Giants play near the end of July will be great theater, but they won’t decide who wins the Tony. Starting Friday, and lasting through Aug. 24, the teams shift play away from the weak bottom-three of the NL West to an out-of- division schedule. The team that fares best against this challenge may be your NL West champion.

The Giants play 31 of 34 games during this period against out-of-division foes, with the three games against the Dodgers the only exception. The Dodgers play 29 of 35 games during this stretch against teams out of the division. The Giants might have a slight advantage in the matchups. The Dodgers have seven against NL East contender Atlanta, six against NL Central contender Milwaukee and four against the red-hot Angels in a home and away series. The Giants have seven against vulnerable Philadelphia, but also must face formidable opponents such as Washington, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and the White Sox. The Dodgers are home for 17 of these 35 games. The Giants are home for just 11 of the 34.

PENNANT RACES: The teams have had 10 strong head-to-head pennant races since coming to California in 1958. The Giants won titles in four of them (1962, 1971, 1997 and 2012). The Dodgers won titles in five of them (1959, 1965, 1966, 1978 and 2004). The teams eliminated each other in 1982.

STATS MATCHUP: The teams are fairly even in hitting and pitching statistics this year. Complicating that analysis is that the Giants built their numbers with a torrid start that led to a 9-1/2 game lead at one point, and have notably fallen since then. The Dodgers are batting .258 to the Giants .243, and have outscored them 403-365. The Giants have a slight lead in homers 84-76. A difference-maker for the Dodgers might be their speed. Dodgers second baseman Dee Gordon channels up memories of speedster Maury Wills of 1962, having stole 42 bases so far. The Giants team has 35, and 11 have come from Angel Pagan, who has missed significant time because of injury.

ATTENDANCE: Who will have the biggest support? It looks about even. The Dodgers lead the league in attendance this year with 2,230,760, while the Giants have drawn 2,163,097.

NO-HITTERS: The Dodgers have two this year tossed by Clayton Kershaw and Josh Beckett. The Giants have one thrown by Tim Lincecum. If there is one recorded in the nine games the teams have remaining against each other this year, history says it is unlikely to come from a Giant. The last five no-hitters in the rivalry have been thrown by Dodgers: Kevin Gross (1992), Jerry Reuss (1980), Sandy Koufax (1963), Carl Erskine (1956) and Rex Barney (1948). The last Giant to no-hit the Dodgers was Rube Marquard in 1915. The Giants Tom Lovett, a 23-game winner in 1891, was the first to throw a no-hitter in the rivalry, beating the Dodgers 4-1 that year. Amos Rusie, who was the losing pitcher in that game, countered a month later by no-hitting the Giants 6-0.  Rusie’s performance was no fluke. That season, he was 33-20, with 52 complete games and 337 strikeouts in 500 innings.

PUIG VS. POSEY: These are the offensive stars for the two teams. The success of each club may very well rest on which produces the best. So far, Puig has the upper statistical hand, leading Posey in average (.309 to .275), OBP (.393 to .331), RBI (52 to 46) and HR (14 to 12). Of course it’s hard to measure Posey’s value to his team as a catcher with baseball savvy against Puig’s raw play and his sometimes costly decisions in the field and on the bases. But ultimately, the story of the 2014 Giants-Dodgers season may be answered in who delivered the best when it mattered — Puig or Posey.

PITCHING MATCHUPS:  Based on each managers’ post-break rotations, it appears the pitching matchups for the July series will be Zack Grienke vs. Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw vs. Ryan Vogelson, Matt Cain vs. Hyn-Jin Ryu. I was hoping for Kershaw vs. Lincecum, and maybe there will be some tweak in the starters that will make that possible. The combination of  Lincecum’s recent success, and his charismatic flair, against All-World Kershaw would give today’s younger fans a feeling of what it was like in the 1960s when Sandy Koufax dueled Juan Marichal. The Kershaw-Lincecum matchups in 2011 were classics. Kershaw was a rising star and Lincecum had quickly established himself as one of the best in the game. Kershaw showed greatness was in his future as he won all four matchups against Lincecum. The stats from the four games: Kershaw 30.1 IP, 2 R, 16 H, 36 SO, 5 BB. Lincecum: 29 IP, 5 R, 24 H, 23 SO, 12 BB. C’mon, Don Mattingly and Bruce Bochy, line up your rotation so we get this matchup.

So let’s get that Home Run Derby and All-star exhibition done and gone so we can get to some old country hardball over the next month that will shape the National League post-season picture. I can’t wait.